Food with great view at Crab Island Cantina

Friday

Sep 14, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 14, 2012 at 10:52 AM

Crab Island Cantina is long-time Destin staple Pepito's newest venture in HarborWalk Village. I was familiar with Pepito's but knew to expect something a little more upscale from its harborside eatery.

JENNIFER SCHAEFER / Daily News

DESTIN — Crab Island Cantina is long-time Destin staple Pepito's newest venture in HarborWalk Village. I was familiar with Pepito's but knew to expect something a little more upscale from its harborside eatery.

Open since this spring, Crab Island Cantina is in the location that housed the Dancing Iguana, and before that, Pat O’Brien's.

The food

Crab Island Cantina bills itself as a little different from the traditional Mexican restaurants, and it is. They have some unique dishes and plenty of seafood offerings. Don’t worry, though, there are still plenty of favorites such as tacos and nachos on the menu.

Their spin on the traditional cheese sauce is the Queso Fundido Trio, which pairs Pepitos jalepeno cheese dip with corn chips as well as a dip made with Muenster cheese with chorizo, bell pepper, onion and cilantro, and also a baked Oaxaca cheese with tomato and roasted poblano pepper. Cheese lovers, unite!

My friend and I went with a little healthier option and chose the Ceviche del Dia, which consisted of fresh shrimp, scallops and tilapia marinated in lime juice with diced jalepeno, green onion, chopped cilantro and diced tomato.

For our entrees my friend chose the chili relleno. This plate came with two giant poblano peppers that were roasted and stuffed with chihuahua cheese and ground beef and potato (shrimp is another choice).

The menu says it is served with refried black beans and Spanish rice, but we did not get these. That actually wasn’t an issue because the portions were so huge we didn’t miss it.

I ordered the Camarones Picosos. The menu describes this as large shrimp sautéed in spicy chili de Arbol sauce with jalepeno peppers and Spanish onion, served on a bed of Spanish rice with avocado slices and refried pinto beans. After the description on the menu is a big “Spicy!”

Sadly, this dish did not fulfill its promise of being spicy at all. It did, however, fulfill its promise of having more large shrimp than I could possibly eat.

In the end, I tasted my friend’s meal and wished I’d chosen his, which had tons of spice, and was a version of the chili relleno I’d never had.

A few other entrees offered are the tamales, street tacos, pork chops grilled and topped with chili guajillo and apple mushroom cream sauce, shrimp and crab quesadillas and carne asada.

The atmosphere

This is where it’s at. I’m not sure any other restaurant in the area can boast of a view quite like this one. Most of the seating area at this restaurant is on the two-level outside deck, which seats 100 easily. Outside there’s also a full bar and a beautiful fountain.

On the day we dined at Crab Island Cantina, we were blessed with sunny, clear skies. We watched as boats returned to the harbor as we munched on chips.

The service

Our waitress, Jerrica, was polite and handled our orders with ease.

A final taste

If Mexican is on your mind and you want to take in all of the beauty that Destin has to offer, there’s no better spot than Crab Island Cantina.